FEMA accused of flying evacuees to wrong Charleston

[davidinalameda]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/06/katrina.charleston/index.html?section=cnn_latest

A South Carolina health official said his colleagues scrambled Tuesday when FEMA gave only a half-hour notice to prepare for the arrival of a plane carrying as many as 180 evacuees to Charleston.

But the plane, instead, landed in Charleston, West Virginia, 400 miles away.

It was not known whether arrangements have been made to care for the evacuees or transport them to the correct destination.


holy shit--the whole agency needs to be canned

[Gormy Cuss]

1. This would be funny if it weren't so pathetic.

Did everyone at FEMA graduate from Ringling Brothers's Clown College?
The stack of reports on FEMA delays and other screw-ups is getting awfully big. At this point I'm wondering whether someone should stage a coup and replace the FEMA management altogether.

[expatriot]

2. This reminds me of a time my mom called up an airline in an emergency

to get a flight out of Minneapolis on her cell phone as she was driving up from Iowa and they said they didn't have anything departing in that time frame and she said "How about Rochester?" And the representative said "Yes, he have one leaving in two hours from Rochester, can you be there?" My mom said "Great!" She got to Rochester, MN and then found out that she had purchased a ticket that departed in a half an hour from Rochester, NY. She had assumed too much of the representative's geographical skills.

[Gormy Cuss]

3. well, who ever heard of Rochester, MN? Is there anything there?

Hold the Mayo, I'm joking.

I once ran a phone bank and had to educate an interviewer who insisted that the state of Washington was in the Eastern time zone -- she thought Seattle was part of DC.